Instructional television (ITV) is the use of

television program Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertising, ...

s in the field of

distance education Distance education, also known as distance learning, is the education of students who may not always be physically present at a school, or where the learner and the teacher are separated in both time and distance. Traditionally, this usually in ...

. Educational television programs on instructional television may be less than one half hour long (generally 15 minutes in length) to help their integration into the classroom setting. These shows are often accompanied by teachers' guides that include material to help use this program in lessons. Instructional television programs have historically been shown during the daytime on Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) stations in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

. However, fewer

public television Public broadcasting involves radio, television and other electronic media outlets whose primary mission is public service. Public broadcasters receive funding from diverse sources including license fees, individual contributions, public financing ...

stations devote their airtime to ITV today than they do in the past; these days, ITV programs are either seen on a digital subchannel of non-commercial educational public television station, or passed on to a local educational-access television channel run by a

public, educational, and government access Public-access television is traditionally a form of non-commercial mass media where the general public can create content television programming which is narrowcast through cable television specialty channels. Public-access television was creat ...

(PEG) cable TV organization. Instructional television has been granted 20 microwave channels, administered by local educational institutions, through a service known in the US as ITFS, or

Instructional Television Fixed Service The Educational Broadband Service (EBS) was formerly known as the Instructional Television Fixed Service (ITFS). ITFS was a band of twenty (20) microwave TV channels available to be licensed by the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to ...

. Instructional television may also be programmed on

terrestrial television Terrestrial television or over-the-air television (OTA) is a type of television broadcasting in which the signal transmission occurs via radio waves from the terrestrial (Earth-based) transmitter of a TV station to a TV receiver having an ante ...

stations.

External links

National Educational Broadband Services (EBS) Organization
''(formerly the National ITFS Association)'' * Edwin G. Cohen had a distinguished career in educational and instructional television from 1955 to 1990. His positions included program associate for the Educational Television and Radio Center, director of the National Instructional Television Film Library, and executive director of the Agency for Instructional Television and its successor, Agency for Instructional Technology
His papers
are housed at the University of Maryland Libraries Public television in the United States Television terminology {{Edu-stub

See also

External links